If you have been a RV owner for a while then you have certainly stumbled into some spots and spaces in your RV that leave you scratching your head. Why some RV manufacturers decided on certain design elements we will never know. Few areas in the RV are more puzzling than the RV dinette booth. In particular the cabinet or drawer area under the RV dinette booth. This is a space that is difficult to access and wastes precious storage area. With the never ending creativity and talent of DIY RV owners, an alternative has arrived.
Modified RV Dinette Booth Cabinet
A member of the IRV2 forums who goes by scarab0088 came up with a clever way to gain access to the precious area beneath their RV dinette booth in their 37 foot Damon Outlaw. They started by removing the cabinet door which made it difficult to store and remove items. While most people decide to install a drawer in this instance, they chose to create a cabinet out of the RV dinette booth side. Essentially, they made the entire side a cabinet door. This could be a useful mod for replacing the traditional cabinet opening, drawers, or even for an additional way to access the under seat storage setup that some RV’s have.
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Most RV’s can handle a modification like this. All that is needed it to remove the side of the booth, reinforce the opening left behind, and add hinges that connect to the side and the base. It is important to reinforce the opening because the side previously held a significant role in the structural integrity of the dinette booth. If you didn’t there is a high probability of failure over time.
Not only did this make storage under the dinette easer to access but it also captures additional space that a drawer loses due on the sides, top, and bottom.
RV Dinette Booth Cabinet/Pet Den
Alternatively, the cabinet door could be modified to accommodate a doggie bed or cat box as the photos above show. A neat way to keep your furry friends out of the way!
What do you think? Would you be more interested in drawers or cabinets under your RV dinette booth?
I think another easy way to access under the dinette seating is to just make the top of the seats lift up so you can reach right in otherwise its hard to get to things in the back. Another more pricey way would be to install a full legnth slide tray or drawer.
We did something similar to this in the last camper we had. But we were lazier about it! We just removed the cabinet door from one of the benches and put our pup’s bed and toys in there. She was small enough to fit through the opening and loved it. We loved it too since it kept her bed out from under our feet!
In our last motorhome a ’88 28ft Pace Arrow there was a small cabinet under the bed and only accessible from a small door close to the floor. We took the door off and our two little dogs loved to play in there. We now have a ’04 30ft Hurricane. We are not sure where we want to make the dogs playhouse. Under the bed or under the dinette. We were wondering about ventilation under both. I thought maybe use some flat cold air return ducts and would like to use it as a kennel. The pups are 4 years old and kenneled at home when we leave the house. My Cairn is a busy little boy and likes to hide under things when he gets nervous.
Hi Catherine,
We do not currently have anything specifically on that subject. Good news however, IRV2.com does. Have a look at this discussion regarding replacing the flooring with vinyl: http://www.irv2.com/forums/f258/want-to-replace-rv-carpet-with-flooring-116348.html
Good Luck!
I want to replace the carpets in the bathroom with some vinyl flooring in the rv do you have any info on that subject